The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for launching and hauling in objects such as life-boats, pick-up boats, small submarines and the like, as well as for rescuing people and other loose objects.
The invention is particularly suitable for putting a life-boat or the like into a body of water, or taking it out of the water, even during rough weather conditions, without risking damage to the life-boat in the process. The invention is particularly useful for rescue operations where a life-boat must be launched for picking up people from the sea in rough weather. The invention also makes it possible to rescue people, for instance the victims of a shipwreck lying in the sea, as well as loose objects.
Usually life-boats are suspended in various types of davits, and large life-boats are normally arranged in fall-davits which by means of hooks are fastened in blocks or winches for lowering the boat. In bad weather, when rough seas are predominant and accidents occur, it becomes both dangerous and precarious to launch a boat at sea. The boat normally hangs from two hooks which must be undone quickly and safely under rough sea conditions. A wave hitting against the side of a ship will often build up and create big vertical forces by rising far higher than it would otherwise do. A boat lying close to the ship's side will therefore be exposed to bigger movements than the boat lying at some distance from the ship. It can be therefore seen that the sea need not be particularly rough before it becomes difficult or perhaps quite impossible to haul in a life-boat.
By means of the present invention it is possible to launch in the sea and pick up objects, for example life-boats, from much rougher waters than has been considered heretofore possible.
An understanding of the invention will be had from a reading of the following description taken with reference to the accompanying drawings.